China’s Li Na has retained her perfect match record this season by upsetting world No.1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki and becoming the first Asian player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final in singles.
The victory didn’t come without excitement – Wozniacki took the first set as Li made 17 unforced errors to 7 winners, and then the Dane had a match point at 5-4 in the second set. The thing that makes tennis amazing is that it’s never over til it’s over – Li shot a risky forehand, saved the match point and eventually won the set 7-5. In the third set Li again had more unforced errors than winners, although only two more, but Wozniacki hit zero winners! Can’t beat that!
The ninth-seeded Li won the match 3-6 7-5 6-3 and continued to write tennis history for China.
Li’s opponent in the championship match will be Kim Clijsters, who has played in the finals of three of four Grand Slams, although she was victorious only at the US Open. With a 6-3 6-3 victory over second seed Vera Zvonareva in the semis, third-seeded Clijsters closely approached her second straight Grand Slam title. But before the Belgian holds the winner’s trophy, she’ll have to overcome Li, who defeated her this month in the Sydney final. As for overall career record, Clijsters leads Li 4-2.
Additional info: Reuters has a great factbox about the progress of Chinese tennis. (photos: Tidalist)
I wouldn’t call this an upset, since Li was a favourite. I didn’t watch the match, and I’m pretty supriser Li began the match so poorly, but it seems she relaxed later and played her game. On the other hand, Caroline- 0 winners in 3rd set- what the hell?! Of course she lost it.
This might be a big shock for some people but a lot of fans are saying that Caro does not seem to be at the top of her game. I still believe that it was a good fight. Congratulations to Li Na! http://www.tennisround.com